Plans degrade in execution through countless small frictions that no plan can enumerate in advance.
Clausewitz's 1832 term for the accumulation of small unforeseeable difficulties: weather, fatigue, misheard orders. His point is that friction is not a defect in planning but a property of execution.
In practice
- A launch plan survives budget, staffing and legal review, then loses a fortnight because the only person who can sign the certificate is on paternity leave.
- A perfectly rehearsed conference talk is undone by a projector that will not accept the laptop's output.
- Subject
- Risk & Reliability
- Essay
- How accidents actually happen